Dragon Scales - Tumblr Posts

I'm excited about these clear polycarbonate scales that the chainmail supply company I get materials from just started making. Here's a bracelet that I put together as a first test of the material.

For quite some time I'd wanted to laser-cut acrylic scales, but was kind of hesitant, because acrylic tends to be more brittle than I would necessarily trust for this sort of thing. But polycarbonate is more durable. (Or, more precisely, I don't know the relative hardnesses of the materials, but when abused, polycarbonate will deform and bend where acrylic will chip and crack. So things made of polycarbonate tend to last longer.)

The clear does give an interesting effect. It'll catch the eye with reflections, but from other angles it can be hard to see the scales at all. The transparency lets you see through to the network of rings that holds the scales together, but where multiple scales overlap it obscures it enough to make it difficult for the eye to make out what is underneath.

A number of my friends have said that they prefer the normal metal scales to these plastic ones. Which I can see. But I think it kind of misses the point. I think these are interesting enough that I'll definitely stock them and make pieces with them. I will also look into cutting my own acrylic scales, because these aren't being produced in different colors, nor are they available in the large size.

Oh, and for the curious, I posted this up for ordering through my Etsy page.

Black aluminum dragon tail with chrome spikes and a spade tip. It also has an underbelly in standard aluminum.

The base pattern for this was clean and simple, but the details were nice. The spikes down the spine accentuate the surface and catch the light nicely. They each attach onto the scales with a screw, which I use thread-lock solution on to help ensure they don't loosen. This pattern has become my standard arrangement of spikes. Though I can only get 2 sizes of these spikes, I feel like this arrangement does a good job of giving the impression of a gradual decrease of size from the top to the bottom.

The other fun detail on this tail was the spade tip. It's made of leather, which I laser-cut out to get an accurate pattern, stain, and sew together by hand. It attaches via 3 lobster clasps, so it can be removed or swapped out.

I'm going to post another set of photos with close-ups and details of this tail, because I have a few more photos. If I have a chance before I ship this out to the commissioner, I'll try to get photos with this outside somewhere pretty.

If you're curious about these dragon tails I make, feel free to check out my commission information page about them and drop me a message!

Aaaaalllmost done with this scale shirt commission. I successfully moved the closure so that it angles down from the neck to the armpit, then goes straight down the side where it's not very visible. Getting that diagonal overlap to look reasonable was tricky, but I'm happy with how it ended up.

All that's left is to reinforce the neck edge, trim the bottom edge, add in a slit on the left side, and check the fit on the person it's for. (Luckily they're almost exactly my size, so I don't expect to have to adjust it too hard.)

I haven't made all that many scale necklaces in the past, but I think it may be time to start. The reason I hadn't made many was because the normal weave I use for bracelets works fine when it's mostly taught, but acts weird and annoying when it drapes too much. So chokers work well, but longer necklaces are tricky.

So I've been coming up with ways of fixing that issue. The first solution is to build the necklace with a bit of a pendant, which the weight keeps the scales of the chain nice and tidy.

The second solution is a modification of the weave to be double-sided. Instead of 2 rows of scales next to each other and open on the back, it's 2 rows of scales back-to-back, enclosing the connections on the inside. This takes care of the flipping-upside-down issues. Also, the physics of this modified pattern make it tend to lie quite flat. It'll bend in plane very freely, but it really resists bending up/down. Which makes it not work at all as a bracelet, but very well as a necklace. (It might also be a fun weave for keychains. Maybe I'll make some up and see how they sell at the next craft fair I'm at.)

Anyway, here are two necklaces in these styles. Both are made of small stainless steel scales and rings. They are available over on my Etsy page: Pendant link Thin link

This heat-colored titanium scale bracelet came out particularly well. I color these by heating them over a flame until they start to glow just a little bit, and the titanium oxidizes to these wonderful colors. It’s always a bit of an irregular process of course. This one was really nice I thought because basically every scale had a gradation from amber through rose to blue. Often times the blue color ends up dominating a bit more.

Anyway, this one is already off to the person who ordered it. If you like the idea of wearing a beautiful result of an unpredictable process, you can check these out over on my Etsy shop!

A quick scale bracelet someone bought off my etsy page. I liked the color pattern, so I'm posting it up for people to see. 

Working on an accessory to the dragon tails I make. It’s an extension of the tail up your back! (The commissioner had the idea.) It’ll be worn like a backpack. The straps snap on.

Here you see the underside of it, showing how the attachment works. I was happy to have figured out how to attach the leather pieces into the scales.

More photos of the whole thing once I finish up the tail that goes with this, and also make a fresh set of backpack straps. (These ones were cribbed from the tsundere shark costume I made for Halloween, which I still need to get nice photos of.)

These were the other notebook covers I made for family Christmas gifts. You also get to see me soaking them to put the fold in.

The photo is of the old Cook County Hospital building, which my mom has done a lot of work with over the years. I etched it onto the leather using a halftone pattern to get the gray-scale.

Got photos of this chainmail dragon tail today. It’s got a custom pattern of jagged V shapes in red on a black background, over a blue underbelly.

It’s not quite done, I still need to add spikes into it down the spine. I plan to get that done and get more photos of it in the next couple days.

I’m almost done clearing out my backlogged commission queue! I’ll be opening up again for new orders soon!

The second dragon tail I finished up today! (I’d gotten both mostly built in quick succession, but wasn’t able to do the spikes until just now. Here are some photos of it from earlier without the spikes.) This one has jagged red Vs on a black background, with a blue underbelly. Also a more dense pattern of spikes than I normally do, with large spikes on the red areas and small spikes on the black.

My friends are excellent, by the way.

This one measures in at 33 inches from tip to top of belt, and 3 pounds 1 ounce in weight.

Again, I’ll be opening up for new commissions for these in a week or so. I’ll be updating my tail commissioning guide before I do.

Two scale bracelets ordered last week from my Etsy shop. We got a 3-scale wide bronze one, and a 2-scale-wide rainbow anodized aluminum one. (The bronze one came close to cleaning me out of that material, that’s kind of embarrassing, I’m ordering more now.)

Also! After much delay, I’m opening up to accept a couple commissions for dragon tails! I’ll make a new post for that in just a moment.

It’s a dragon tail! Surprising nobody!

Blue anodized aluminum with a stripe of yellow, and an underbelly of plain aluminum. This one measures in at 2 pounds 10 ounces and 29.5 inches long. It’s also got a lobster clasp that you can see just barely right at the tip.

And I grabbed a quick shot of the belt loop attachment, because it’s been a while since I posted a photo of that.

I’ve got a pile of masks to produce in the next week, but I’m planning on opening for May commission requests over the weekend.

Here are two flame-colored titanium scale bracelets I’ve made relatively recently. I usually don’t think to post the small things I make, because they often don’t feel exciting to me. I do always love making these, though. Seeing what colors I get out of the hot metal is always fun. A bit nerve-wracking, because I’ve definitely had a couple times when I got too much oil from my fingers on the scales and the fingerprints showed up on the final piece. Whoops. I always like when I get a good mix of colors through rose and blue. The hotter the metal gets, the closer it goes to a clear faint blue. So I have to heat it evenly in the flame and try not to overdo it.

As always, these are available over on my Etsy store.

Finally decided to list anodized titanium as available. It’s probably the metal I find most beautiful out of everything I’ve worked with. The color comes from an oxide layer on the surface, where the layer’s thickness determines the wavelength of light that can get through it. Similar to how the colors of a soap bubble or oil film come about.

Currently this green is the only color I have stock of. (My last material order, I got green and a bag of mixed scales.) Next time I’m ordering more materials I’ll definitely get another couple of colors.

You can get one over on my Etsy page!

Some materials I’ve been toying with. I was vending at a small convention over the weekend, and I made a few new things for it.

The first is titanium scales. I’ve been making flame-colored bracelets for a while, which are the three on the left. (The darker one I tried heating from the back, to see if I could get or liked a more even coloration. It was pretty consistent, but it wasn’t a very interesting color. Oh well.) Recently I got anodized titanium scales, which are absolutely beautiful. These ones were made with a random assortment of colors, which I rather enjoyed. I need to get some more photos of them, then they’ll go up on my Etsy page. So far I’ve just got green anodized listed. 

Below is two bronze necklaces. The pattern is a very tight spiral weave configuration referred to as Jens Pind Linkage. Bronze is fun to me because it oxidizes so nicely. The shiny one is brand new, freshly woven, and the dark one is after 2 weeks of continual wear. I think it’s mostly reached a steady color now? It darkened most of the way within a few days.

I got some anodized titanium scales, and I made them into bracelets! I went for a mixed assortment of colors, so I could see which ones I liked enough to stock. And I in the meantime, I rather like this randomized aesthetic. It reminds me of over-saturated art of the aurora borealis or of galaxies.

I already decided to stock the green, which I posted previously. I’m thinking of also getting the rose/magenta one and the bright teal/purple one. I like the bright, inconsistent colors. The yellow is also pretty nice, but I think I have enough options for yellow as it is.

Anyway, as you could guess, these are up on my Etsy page!

A trio of scale bracelets for someone. It took an embarrassingly long time for us to hash out the details and then for me to get around to making them, so my apologies to that person.

Left to right we have pink and yellow/gold anodized aluminum, then heat-colored titanium.

A pair of extra-wide scale bracelets for a couple’s wedding. Both anodized aluminum, one purple and one blue.

Made these scaled bracers recently, it’d been quite a while since someone ordered this design. They’re always fun to make though. Wet-forming the scales to point up and give it texture always takes more force than I remember. Finding a good source for paracord definitely made the laces more reasonable, though.

Available on my Etsy store as always!

Just a couple scale bracelets someone bought recently. One in rainbow anodized aluminum, the other in flame-colored titanium.